It’s often called a gift, an eye, a gut feeling. To be artistic is a loaded way of creating new, transformational pieces that change the world — even when you’re still discovering yours.
I’ve been an “artist” ever since I could remember. My imagination took me to worlds far into the future or far away from where I was. This exploration led to the cheesy art sets for birthdays and numerous bins of artwork that my mom would keep.
It was truly scary to think I had to give up on that part of myself, to give up on me. During school, as I continued my classes in art, my counselors would direct me towards my other passion: writing. The duality of writing and designing seemed like it would end at high school; maybe art was just a hobby…I mean how could I think that I could make it as an artist? Most famous artists didn’t get famous until after they had passed away, and in the world of social media how can you even be original anymore? I just didn’t think I was special enough, so art had to take a backseat because the real world doesn’t care about love: it cares about bills and taxes.
To sit here and write this as a graduating senior with degrees in art and journalism seems like the imagination-land I created as a kid. It’s the loaded question I still avoid – “what are you going to do after college?” The reality is I don’t know, but I finally have leaned into not knowing. I’m no longer scared to panic and find a job or an answer for every stranger I meet. Instead, I’ve taken the time to fall back in love with art, and I was able to meet people along the way that never let me feel alone in our new world we discover.
In our studio class, we are artists and a community. We all embrace being an artist and being artistic. We are creative, we are problem solvers, and we all have this unspoken understanding between one another. Some of us have just met, some of us have known each other from our first year on campus, but we all share the artistic sense.
The sense undoubtedly affects our works: they are visual pieces that evoke different emotions and experiences from each viewer. But no matter what music we choose to listen to, what paints to mix, what fixatives to spray, and what angles to work we create art, it’s the unexplainable phenomena that has made art so historical in human lives and will continue to shape the world — one person at a time.
Images: Morgan Hagerty
